K-Pop Consumption in 2025: South Korea, Japan, and Indonesia Remain Top 3, While United States Rises to 4th Position Signaling Expansion in Western Markets

K-POP RADAR, a comprehensive dashboard for K-pop artists operated by music startup SpaceAudity, has released its “2025 K-Pop World Map.” This analysis, which tallies views of related videos on YouTube’s Artist Chart from January 1 to December 31, 2025, illustrates global K-pop trends throughout the year.

According to the 2025 country-by-country K-pop consumption analysis, South Korea, Japan, and Indonesia retained their positions as 1st, 2nd, and 3rd respectively, just as in the previous year. South Korea, as the birthplace of K-pop, demonstrated further growth by increasing its share compared to 2024. India dropped to 5th place, losing its earlier position.

Notably, the United States showed strong progress. It rose one rank to 4th place and accounted for 6.25% of global K-pop consumption. The nearly 1 percentage point increase in its share indicates that localization strategies and global collaborations are yielding tangible results.

Japan continued to hold 2nd place but saw its share decline from 8.44% to 7.41%, with absolute view counts also decreasing, suggesting the market has entered a stage of maturity.

The trend of global diversification in K-pop consumption was also evident. Taiwan entered the Top 10 by rising in rank for two consecutive years to reach 9th place, while the United Kingdom surged to 17th position, moving out of the Top 20. The simultaneous entry of Western countries such as France, Germany, and Canada signifies that K-pop consumption is advancing into a new phase of expansion.

In the domestic market, DAY6 topped the list, followed by aespa and IU in 2nd and 3rd places respectively. In the United States, Stray Kids maintained its 1st position with a 8.63% share, while in the United Kingdom, Rosé claimed both 1st place overall and 1st place for the highest increase rate, with an overwhelming 11.63% share.